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Hello fellow smug people in the land of mud and showers and kettles and cold beer, are you ready for another weekend of watching a festival on the telly? Are you ready to come back to this thread every so often and leave a mix of COR!-didja-see-that and snarky comments?

i haven't even thought about the offspring in about 5 years. i think i saw them at reading 2006 or something and the five mins i saw was shockingly effortless. why don't you get a job? now, sounds like the singer bloke (buster or something? fuck googling though) really can't be arsed.

but I know that when I was the age that most the crowd seem to be, I'd much rather have been watching a load of tattooed northerners climbing shit and telling me to 'feel the pain' than a bunch of 30 year old Hoxton burnouts crammed into ill-fitting skinny jeans playing po-faced synth pop.

that I've not attended since '05. I'm 20 now, and after attending last year I vowed not to go again. I really didn't enjoy myself, in most part for the poor choice of company, but the glaring realisation that I was above the age of most of the clientèle present finished it off. That said, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia seeing the scantily clad 15 year olds at the festival. Makes me hark back for the days when this was the highlight of my year, always on my birthday weekend, where I'd be able to walk around and act without restraint, without the worries of a mundane job to return back to after the weekend was over.

Saw Does It Offend You Yeah?, The Naked and Famous, Patrick Wolf, Metronomy, heard Offspring from a distance (they've always been ridiculously dull live), Tom Vek and Digitalism. Got to say, Tom Vek was the highlight of the day, he was absolutely ace. I'm going to bet that BBC3 don't show any of his set, although I hope to be proven wrong...

I quite enjoyed the Metronomy set the most. But then, all the rest were shite really. apart from a few little gems from Introducing they showed last night.
They did lack energy a bit but the few tracks from Nights Out were storming and Gbenga really is a damn cool dude

I'm only going for the Sunday of Leeds pretty much for Pulp and I'm kind of spoiling the surprise of the setlist for myself by watching this set now but I don't care at this point.
It is making me even more excited than I already was which was a lot.

I have never been blown away by a live performance on TV.
It depends how you define dad rock. Most fans of Pulp will be about 30, or dad age. Jarvis is nearly 50 and a father. By those criteria it is dad rock.
However compared to what Stereophonics or Snow Patrol pumped out in their 'prime', I would say dad rock is unfair.
I think they have been ok, watching it has been quite nostalgic and I would happily be at Reading now.

and they're a pretty much universally liked band among British teenagers (those who are into music)- these days, I think they've come to symbolise British "indie" more than The Smiths. Pulp have never gone out of fashion. At the Hyde Park gig, the age range was massive, and the majority were definitely not late 20s/early 30s (probably split evenly between early 20s and over 40s)

you're clearly ignoring the fact one band commanded the stage and made a show of it and the fact one band played their songs with little to no energy and seemed completely oblivious to the fact they were the headline act.

That so many people will look at Julian Casablancas not trying and interpret it as another part of their uber-cool, loucheness, which to be fair was cool when we all 15 and they had just released their first album but now just looks like they don't give a shit. Which, on the basis of their albums, would be a fair observation.

People who think is this it the best album of the 00's and doesn't like to see bands go the way of Mickey Rourke in the wrestler. I love them a lot but they look exceptionally bored, even for them. I get the feeling they don't really want to be doing this any more

don't get everybody's bored/uber cool observations on this band. they've always just gone up on stage and done their thing. they're not a cartoon band. they don't do theatrics, and Julian is never going to be David Lee Fucking Roth. they've just got great songs. and shit loads of them. the band is always super tight, working their arses off. questions always rests with Julian and how he's going to perform, and fortunately for those in attendance, he was on great and goofy and charming form on Saturday night. watching the band reminded me of Manchester City, in that while they were killing it on the pitch, they still had a whole show's worth of top tracks in reserve that we didn't even get to hear.

Deftones weren't much cop wants their pulse checking. They were fucking stonking. Also, MCR delivering the "moment" of the festival? Yes. Pulp were muscular, Strokes just sound like the Strokes, National were ace. Crystal Castles sound good when theyre doing Ladytron. Not so much with the wailing.

They did the same with MCR on Friday but I think Pulp and The Strokes were both live last night. I assume it has more to do with the band than the BBC (who seem to film everything and then seek band's permission).

inspire Glenn Beck. Whether they meant to or not, that's the kind of music they make. Fondness of Muse, like tendency to believe in Christianity, is characterised by a general suspension of your critical faculties

Turned up too late to see The Antlers :-( gutting as i'm obsessed with Burst Apart at the moment (hence my thread)

Had some beers and then watched SMD, Digitalism and The Horrors. Digitalism was EXCELLENT

Madness on Saturday were great fun. Something for everyone to enjoy, and It Must Be Love as set closer felt like a real heart-warming festival moment.

Pulp set didn't live up to the billing i feel. A lot of this is down to the fact that half the crowd didn't exist when Different Class came out. And when your a band on a comeback tour with no new material, you're really relying purely on nostalgia and good will from the crowd to see you through. This was the wrong festival for that. I regret missing the glasto set. This is Hardcore was fucking awesome though :-)

The Strokes were really good i thought, but maybe that's because the young crowd knew more of the material. As someone mentioned, Julian and the band only seemed to wake up halfway through the set. This might be down to the fact they realised they didn't have enough time to play the full setlist (they came on late) - but it was a really storming finish i felt.

Generally the festival vibe was a bit shit - and the kids are annoying as ever. But i guess i just need to fuck off to Latitude, or whatever, with people my own age.

It was certainly the wrong festival for The National. One of the funniest moments of the day when was Aaron (maybe his twin!) said something along the lines of "oh, you've brought an alligator (in reference to a blow-up alligator/croc in the crowd)... oh, you probably don't know what that means". The crowd were proper shit, and it did rub off in their performance quite alot. When 40% of an audience (at least) don't give a shite about a band yet persist in pushing their way to the front it's going to be reflect on the performance. Pulp and Jarvis struggled a little bit with it too, though not to the same levels. Most of the crowd had zero idea of any of the tracks beside the obvious two which play at their local indie disco. Hardcore, I Spy, FEELING CALLED LOVE were as amazing as ever. Wednesday a few off Separations please.

Also saw The Joy Formidable, I've seen them a scary number of times and they know how to play this sort of festival slot now. The sound majorly sucked for them though.

She Keeps Bees for the second time in three days, not The Lexington but they know how to rock it.

Madness were fun.

Everything Everything - some sort of joke?

Never again Reading. Summed up by being pushed out of the way on the way out after The Joy Formidable by a young girl in a Joy Division t-shirt, rushing to the front to see The Pigeon Detectives.

it seemed like there were a lot less twats there this year.
last year people and the general atmosphere of 'lets just fuck shit up' pissed me off so much it was a major factor in me not wanting to go again, this year had a much better vibe

highlights:
Saul Williams spoken word set, the dude can speak, he really can speak.
The Antlers - totally glorious. and cheers to whoever it was who swapped a bit of my bacci for some tokes on the ensuing zoot. helped a lot! (i didn't even give a shit i only saw 3 Destones songs!)
Don Broco - those guys are serious levels of fun
Digitalism - i think i boogied hard
Tribes - straightforward 90s Indie done in a way i liked, though i missed Sappho due to too much mifling i love that song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anVPXNnUkkk&ob=av3e)
Odd Future - they're pretty great aren't they? i need to look into them more
Mariachi El Bronx of course!
Jimmy Eat World of course
Glassjaw - luckilly i'm right into Colouring Book and grooving to it being played in full
The National - i was beginning to be too drunk by then
wished i hadn't spent the next 2 hours chsing a massively drunk girlfriend around thus missing most of pulp and rival schools
I remember singing to the Strokes a lot, so i enjoyed them
Fucked Up were Brilliant, just brilliant
Panic at the Disco were pretty good.
Interpol play with a rainbow above the stage (In(terpol) rainbows was about the best i could come up with
Elbow were magical, i didn't even mind them playing nothing off their first 3 albums, i now really like the new one.
Muse. oh muse, i've longed for the days when you came out to What Is He building before riffing up a treat. they were fanfuckingtasic.

it was so refreshing to walk through the campsite from the orange silent disco back home at 3 in the morning and for there to be no haurds of zombies burning everything. thanks for that, those of you who normally burn everything and make me want to kill. for the first time since about 2004 i'm hoping i get to go again next year, rather than ralising in March that i like too many bands on the bill to miss it. heck i only bought a ticket last monday, what a great decission!